LESSON 3 THINKING OF ETHICS

• Moral decision: when a person is placed in a situation and confronted by the choice of what act to perform
• Moral judgment: when a person is an observer, assessing the actions or behavior of someone
• Moral Dilemma: when a person is torn between choosing one of two goods and choosing between the lesser of two evils
• Moral issue: when a person performs an act which they may potentially help or harm someone
• Normative: focuses on how things ought to be, what people should do

  • Moral promotes altruism and prudential doing what's wise for yourself
• Epistemic: primarily governed by belief or what is distinctive of knowledge and what is rational to believe
• Descriptive: focuses on "how things are" or comparative ethics, the study of people's morality

  • Involves empirical investigation
  • Lawrence Kohlberg made a theory focused on descriptive theory
• Meta ethics: explores what it means to do/act, what "right" even means
• Applied ethics: deals with how to take moral knowledge and put it into practice